Unplug yourself from technology

Technology is all around us and we use it every single day. We are connected to people that we know and even sometimes people that we do not know through our cellphones and computers.

We cannot imagine life without it and when you hear stories of how your parents or grandparents grew up without it, you think to yourself How is that possible? I will never survive it...

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Technology is great and in many instances it can make our life a lot easier, but it also takes us away from being outside, connecting with people in person and just looking up and seeing things around us.

Sometimes it can feel like you are 'overloading' on technology, it can even rob you from sleeping enough and it is a good thing to take a step back and just 'reboot' from it all.... even if you think you will not survive being without your phone for a few hours, you will be surprised that you will survive it and maybe even discover a few new things to do.

I am sure you have been woken at night with a 'beep' telling you there is a message. You replied to the message, the next morning you cannot remember you replied and you cannot believe your eyes when you see what you have replied. Earth please swallow me...

This can be one of the signs that your phone is depriving you of much needed sleep and that you have to get in a routine of stepping away from technology when it is time to sleep.

If you are going to sleep, log off your emails or 'Facebook', so that your friends will see you are not online, but the sound of incoming messages will not wake you up. Believe it or not, you will not miss out on so much, which you cannot catch up the next morning and you will have a peaceful sleep.

You most probably leave your cellphone on silent, with the vibration on, so even if it does not make a loud sound, your brain is so in tune with your phone, that the buzzing sound will wake you up. If there is an emergency and somebody cannot reach you, they will phone your parents or wait until the next day. Most of the time there are no emergencies or not really anything you can do about it, so unless you know somebody is sick or may need you, switch off your phone.

Switch off your computer, do not just let it go into 'sleep mode', because there will still be little lights flashing that can interrupt your sleep.

You may think that your friends will think you are boring, but let them know that you need your sleep and you will be answering their texts and emails, but once you go to bed, everything is switched off. They can still send you messages but you will only reply to it in the morning.

They may even laugh at you, but soon they will get use to you not replying and they will also notice that you are well rested. If they are good friends, they will respect this and get use to it and who knows, even start doing the same thing.

Once you get the hang of it to go through the night without answering messages on your phone or computer, be daring and take a day each month, where you totally 'switch off'. Go on a hike, visit some friends without looking at your phone, take the dog for a walk, sit and chat with your parents, read a book.

You will be amazed at what you will learn about people and your environment if you actually use your senses once in a while, in stead of technology...